does yoda have a speech impediment

An Unusual Way of Speaking, Yoda Has

When Luke Skywalker first encounters Yoda, it’s on a swampy planet in The Empire Strikes Back . At first, Luke doesn’t realize the long-eared, wrinkly green creature is, in fact, the one he’s seeking.

“I’m looking for someone,” Luke says.

“Looking?” Yoda replies. “Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm?”

There’s a narrative effect to the way Yoda speaks. To an English speaker, anyway, the way he orders his sentences sounds vaguely riddle-like, which adds to his mystique.

But what’s actually going on with Yoda, linguistically? First, let’s examine how Yoda doesn’t speak. Many of the world’s most-spoken languages—English, Mandarin—are built around constructions that go subject-verb-object. An example would be: Yoda grasped the lightsaber.

Another common construction, and one you’d find more commonly among speakers of Japanese, Albanian, and many other languages, goes subject-object-verb: Yoda the lightsaber grasped. More rare is a verb-subject-object construction, but that’s how people who speak Hawaiian and some Celtic languages do it: Grasped Yoda the lightsaber. Even more unusual is the way Yoda famously speaks, ordering his sentences object-subject-verb, or OSV: The lightsaber Yoda grasped. Or, to use an example from an actual Yoda utterance: “Much to learn, you still have.”

“This is a clever device for making him seem very alien,” said Geoff Pullum, a professor of linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. “You have to do some work to realize that his, ‘Much to learn, you still have,’ means ‘You still have much to learn.’” There are other fictional examples of characters who speak like Yoda. Bowyer, from the 1996 Super Nintendo game, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, says things like, “Fun this is, yes?” and “Disturb me, you must not! Practicing I am.” But what about in the real world? “Surprisingly, there are a very few languages—it seems to be in single digits—that use OSV as their basic or normal order,” Pullum told me. “As far as I know, they occur only in the area of Amazonia in Brazil: they are South American Indian languages. One well-described case is a language called Nadëb.”

Looking more closely at how Yoda speaks, it’s not always object-subject-verb, but sometimes a construction Pullum once referred to as XSV, the “X” being a stand-in for whatever chunk of the sentence goes with the verb, even if it’s not an object. So, for example: “Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is,” as Yoda says in Episode II: Attack of the Clones . Truly wonderful, in that case, is the “X.” Pullum, in a blog post in 2005, called this construction “fantastically rare” in the real world.

“The curious feature of Yoda’s syntax that some linguists have commented on is that, although it is by no means consistent, he seems to speak as if he thinks OSV [or XSV] is normal,” Pullum told me. “In fact, he generalizes it, favoring the beginning of the sentence for various modifiers and complements that English syntax would normally leave till the end of the clause.”

Consider for example: “When 900 years old you reach, look as good, you will not.” But then there are other facets of Yoda-speak, times when he leaves auxiliary verbs—various forms of be, do, and have—dangling, as he does in a phrase like, “Lost a planet, Master Obi-Wan has.”

And then there are the times when Yoda speaks in regular old subject-verb-object constructions. (“A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind.”) Pullum says these inconsistencies make for an “odd mix,” though others have been less forgiving. Writing for The New Yorker in 2005, Anthony Lane had this to say of Yoda’s “screwy” syntax: “Break me a fucking give.” A funny line, timing-wise, but, as the linguist Mark Liberman pointed out at the time, not actually all that Yoda-esque. (“A fucking break, give me,” was one more Yoda-ish alternative offered in a blog post Liberman wrote on the subject at the time.)

Looking more closely at Yoda, and particularly at his dialogue in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith , further confused Liberman, who analyzed dozens of Yoda’s lines in the film. “A bit of empirical investigation has left me more puzzled about Yoda’s syntax than I was before,” he wrote. (Most perplexing, he said, was an example of a fronted element—the sort of clause that you might bring to the start of a sentence for emphasis—found between the subject and predicate: “That group back there, soon discovered will be.”) Liberman has said it would take a larger dataset to fully analyze Yoda-speak, but he won’t get it from the latest film (spoiler alert): Yoda’s a no-show.

Yoda-speak gets even more confusing, to me anyway, when you try to translate it from English. In Estonian versions of the films, according to one fascinating Reddit thread about linguistics, Yoda retains the word order used in English versions. “This is grammatical in Estonian, but does make it seem as though Yoda is constantly stressing the object phrase as the main point of his statements,” according to one commenter. “This gives his speech an unusual quality.” But in Czech translations, rather than speaking in his general object-subject-verb manner, Yoda apparently speaks in subject-object-verb (like in Japanese).

Really, though, Yoda was written for an English-speaking audience. And, as James Harbeck pointed out in an article for The Week last year, there are plenty of examples from popular literature that sound just as offbeat syntactically as Yoda, even if they're not identical in construction. There’s Walt Whitman (“Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring”), and Shakespeare (“For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered”), and whoever wrote the lyrics to “The Little Drummer Boy” (“Come, they told me, the newborn king to see”). “These sentences remind us of Yoda-style things we can do in poetry and other stylized forms,” Harbeck wrote. “And that's the thing about Yoda-speak: We understand it. It is comprehensible English because it is written by English speakers, for English speakers, using things you can do in English.”

To appreciate Yoda, maybe it’s best to abandon one’s grammatical senses altogether—or, you know, “unlearn what you have learned.” Like the little guy says, “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

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• Yoda speaks strangely due to George Lucas' desire for Yoda to sound alien but still be understandable.
• Yoda's age plays a role in his unique way of speaking, with language evolving around him.
• Yoda's sense of humor may also be a factor in his odd speech patterns, showcasing his joy in being underestimated.

Yoda's speech patterns have always been unusual in Star Wars , and the franchise has struggled to settle on a definite reason why. When Yoda first made his debut in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back , viewers were captivated by the Jedi Grandmaster . George Lucas designed Yoda to be an unlikely master, deliberately forcing audiences (and Luke Skywalker) to look beyond the surface appearance. " Judge me by my size, do you, " Yoda asked - a comment that didn't only showcase his size, but also pointed to his weird syntactic patterns.

Star Wars has subsequently introduced several members of Yoda's species - most prominently Jedi Master Yaddle, who made her first appearance in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace . The odd thing is, though, that no other member of Yoda's race shares his speech pattern . Why does Yoda speak so strangely?

George Lucas Wanted To Emphasize Yoda's Alien Nature - Without Subtitles

From an out-of-universe perspective, the answer can be found in Paul Duncan's The Star Wars Archives: 1977-1983 . This includes an interview with George Lucas, in which he provides a simple answer: " I had to come up with a language that was alien but still understandable , so I reversed everything around, " he explained. It clearly worked, because Yoda became one of Star Wars ' most-quoted characters.

Lucas was particularly concerned with avoiding the need for subtitles. He wanted Yoda to sound alien but understandable, so viewers had a strong sense of what was going on in each scene. In Lucas' view, subtitles would have distracted from the flow of the story (they'd also have been a little odd, given there's no reason Luke Skywalker would have known a random alien language).

What's the best way to watch Star Wars? Here's everything you need to know to watch in release or timeline order, and how to include the TV shows.

Yoda Is So Old, Language Has Evolved Around Him

In Star Wars canon, the reason is tied to Yoda's age . The Jedi Grandmaster was almost 900 years old when he first met Luke, and language had evolved around him - with Yoda not bothering to keep up. The main galactic language in Star Wars is called "Basic," and Yoda speaks an antiquated version that's several centuries old .

"Frank Oz told me once that Yoda speaks that way specifically in honor of his own master."

Speaking to Nerdist , George Lucas' protege Dave Filoni shared a story he was told by Yoda voice-actor Frank Oz. " Frank Oz told me once that Yoda speaks that way specifically in honor of his own master, " he recalled. This would fit with the idea Yoda speaks an older version of Basic; he would have learned Basic from his master over 850 years before the main Star Wars saga.

Yoda's Speech May Also Demonstrate His Sense Of Humor

There is one other possibility though; Yoda's sense of humor. The Jedi Grandmaster is noted for his mischievousness, and he may well find it entertaining to speak in such a confused way. Indeed, his famous comment - " Judge me by my size, do you? " - shows a great deal of joy in being underestimated. A short stature and strange way of speaking would lead many to underestimate him, and they'd only learn their follow when Yoda unleashed his full power.

Hilariously, there's actually been one occasion where Yoda's speech patterns saved a planet . In John Jackson Miller's The Living Force , pirates planted explosives around a major Jedi Council event - one where they knew the Council would tell the planet's populace, " The Jedi will stand with you. " The Council learned the bombs would be triggered by a precise word combination, and in a delightful moment they simply asked Yoda to make the speech; " Stand with you, the Jedi will, " he declared, which didn't set off the bombs. The pirates launched their attack anyway, and the chaos was exquisite.

Buy The Living Force from Amazon

Why Yaddle Doesn't Speak Like Yoda (& Grogu Won't Either)

At just 477 years old at the time of her death in Tales of the Jedi season 1, Yadle was half Yoda's age - which explains why she didn't have the same strange speech patterns. Moving ahead to The Mandalorian , Grogu will pick up his adopted father's speech patterns too. That means this will remain something that is unique to Yoda in Star Wars lore.

The aged Jedi Master had trained Jedi for 800 years by the time he met Luke Skywalker on the planet Dagobah. One of the most famed and revered Jedi, Yoda served as Grand Master of the Jedi Order for centuries; he was powerful enough to duel Darth Sidious himself, although he was defeated. Yoda exiled himself to Dagobah, where he learned how to become a Force Ghost and offered guidance to Luke Skywalker.

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What language(s) were Yoda's speech patterns based on?

I have noticed that a lot of the languages in Star Wars are based on languages in the real world, such as Chalmuk forming the basis of the Ewok language.

Do you know what language Yoda's way of speaking was based on? To me it seems a bit Shakespearean.

• 3 Related, kinda dupe; Why does Yoda speak the way he does? –  Valorum Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 20:58
• 10 I used to have a theory that Yoda was based off of Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid (wise old slightly crazy guy who doesn't speak proper English teaching a kid how to defend himself). But then I found out that Empire Strikes Back came out before Karate Kid. –  DaaaahWhoosh Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 21:25
• 18 Can't resist the urge to edit this question... Based on languages in the real world, a lot of the languages in Star Wars, I have noticed.... –  sampathsris Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 5:51
• 4 German uses this word ordering, but only in subordinate clauses. For example: "I drive a car, which red is ", or "I leave the party, because I myself alone feel" . In main clauses, it sounds crazy for native speakers (just as for Joda-speak for native English). Although these sentences can't ever start with the object. –  Gray Sheep Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 16:56
• 8 For extended discussion, comments are not. Moved to chat , this conversation has been. –  Rand al'Thor ♦ Commented Apr 29, 2017 at 12:14

5 Answers 5

In an article addressed, this subject was.

“Surprisingly, there are a very few languages—it seems to be in single digits—that use OSV [Object Subject Verb] as their basic or normal order,” Pullum told me. “As far as I know, they occur only in the area of Amazonia in Brazil: they are South American Indian languages. One well-described case is a language called Nadëb.”

Looking at it linguistically, we can see that Yodish is a form of OSV - the word order is Object-Subject-Verb. This differs from typical English grammar, as most English sentences follow the "Subject-Verb-Object" order; for example

"I love cookies".

versus the Yodish/OSV:

"Cookies, I love"

However, see into George Lucas' mind, we can not. Yodish, though to other languages similar is, based off it is not.

“This is a clever device for making him seem very alien,” said Geoff Pullum, a professor of linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. “You have to do some work to realize that his, ‘Much to learn, you still have,’ means ‘You still have much to learn.’”

So, another language based off, it perhaps was not. Instead, only from George Lucas' mind conceived, it was.

• 75 Upvote this answer, I must. With flavor it drips. –  corsiKa Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 6:12
• 15 "You have to do some work" Um, what? Every child I know understands Yoda easily, except that he mumbles worse than Rapunzel. –  MissMonicaE Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 12:06
• 9 @MissMonicaE Doing "some work" doesn't rule out the possibility that that work is done easily. –  JBentley Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 12:35
• 5 Speak English this way you can. Incorrect grammar it is not. Through French, parts of Romance languages English has. OSV in Latin appears. –  Michael Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 14:12
• 4 @Michael Interestingly, it looks like embedded clauses in Yodish are VO, like you've written. –  Azor Ahai -him- Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 7:05

There is some evidence to suggest that Yoda's speech is based on, well, English.

In this The Week article (I suggest reading the whole thing, the argument seems pretty convincing to me), Yoda's speech is compared to that which might be found in Shakespeare:

Round about the cauldron go; in the poison entrails throw. Else the Puck a liar call. For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered. I like him not.

The article also offers some examples of what Yoda might sound like if his speech actually was based on other languages:

Is planet lost at Master Obi-Wan. (Gaelic) I not you will-teach more today. (French) I will my own counsel on them, who trained become, keep. (German)

As you can see, even using languages similar to English might come out too confusing for the average moviegoing audience. On the other hand, using archaic English associated with Shakespeare and the King James Bible is accessible enough to be understandable, while alien enough to set Yoda apart.

Not only that, but connecting Yoda to things like Shakespeare and the King James Bible goes a long way to make him seem more ancient and wise. In another answer on this site, I used this to explain why Darth Sidious talked the same way in Revenge of the Sith ; Yoda's sentence structure reminds audiences (perhaps unconsciously) of school and church, which works to solidify Yoda's role as a religious teacher.

That said, it seems like another source of Yoda's unique speech is overenthusiasm. In the original trilogy, Yoda speaks normally almost as often as he doesn't :

"A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack." "If you end your training now — if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did — you will become an agent of evil" "There is another Skywalker" "That is why you fail"

However, it was the abnormalities of his speech that stood out more than the normality. Talking like Yoda turned into the equivalent of talking like a pirate or talking like Shakespeare: you take the things you know sound strange ('yarr matey', adding 'est' to the ends of verbs, etc), and use them as often as possible so everyone can tell what you're doing. Know, you will, when talking like Yoda I am, and the voice I don't even have to do. It seems like this explains most of the cringe-worthy later examples of Yoda's speech: it's based on Yoda's original speech, which is based on antiquated English that most people don't understand how to use.

• 4 Oh, I guess I didn't find a place in my argument for this, but I wanted to link to the TVTropes page for Magical Asian and Magical Native American , they seem like parallel tropes to Yoda, but using different versions of English that have also become parodies of themselves. –  DaaaahWhoosh Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 1:24
• 8 I think Yoda also uses normal word order throughout the lyrics of his famous "Seagulls! (Stop it now)" song ... –  Hagen von Eitzen Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 7:31
• 9 Alas, poor Anakin... I knew him well, Luke –  Machavity Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 12:13
• 2 "I will my own counsel on them, who trained become, keep. (German)" As a native German, i have no idea what this sentence should be based off. What is that supposed to even mean? I can not imagine a single word-by-word translated german sentence that fits this? –  Polygnome Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 13:57
• 3 @DaaaahWhoosh In German, this would be "Ich werde meinen eigenen Rat, wen zu trainieren, befolgen". Word-by-word this gets you "I will my own counsel, whom to train, keep". Which imho is at least somewhat understandable in english :D –  Polygnome Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 16:20

To add to Mikasa Pinata's excellent answer...

Whilst OSV (object-subject-verb) order is not the standard form for most languages, that does not mean it is not an "available option". In English it sounds distinctly alien whilst still being intelligible (hence Lucas's use of the form), but in other languages, it is a perfectly valid construction. A prerequisite for this is generally that the language grammar must allow the subject and object to be distinguished independently of their position in the sentence.

German is the example I know best. In German, position early in the sentence gives emphasis, and subject/object is distinguished by the various forms of the definite or indefinite article (der/die/das, ein/eine/ein, etc.).

So in English, "the dog bites the man" only has one possible interpretation. In German, "der Hund beisst den Mann" is a direct translation. However "den Hund beisst der Mann" means "the man bites the dog", with an emphasis on the dog, simply by changing which is "der" (definite article, male, subject) and which is "den" (definite article, male, object). In English, an equivalent construction requires the passive tense ("the dog was bitten by the man") because that's the only way the language allows the subject/object order to be changed. German can do this as a basic feature of the language - but at the cost of a complex set of rules about definite and indefinite articles.

The same construction is also possible in Latin, where the endings of nouns change depending on whether they are subject or object. Again though, this comes at the cost of complex rules about exactly how those endings work.

• 2 I remember in German A level, the Austrian teacher mentioned "The Man Bites The Dog" alongside "'The cat survived, but I swerved to hit the dog' I am putting the cat first because everyone likes cats, the cats are more important, see?" She reminded me of Yoda herself. –  Mikasa Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 15:32
• 3 Note that in your German examples, the orderings are SVO and OVS, respectively. OSV sounds indeed ungrammatical in German, as well, hence Yoda talks weirdly in the German dubbing, too. –  O. R. Mapper Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 15:34
• 1 @O.R.Mapper Interesting, I've never listened to a German Krieg Die Sterne dub; how do they make his speech patterns sound unusual there? There's also the challenge of making it seem like a deliberate error, rather than just incompetent German. –  Mikasa Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 15:49
• 2 @MikasaPinata: For the example sentence you provided, Yoda would say in German: "Der Hund den Mann beißt." or "Den Mann der Hund beißt.", both of which are invalid orderings in German grammar. I think it doesn't sound like an incompetent translation because it's exactly one character who consistently speaks that way. Another reason may be that while dubbed lines can end up nonsensical in contents, I have never come across an example where a line dubbed German was downright ungrammatical. Given that German voices in dubbed shows typically speak free of any accents (even when the ... –  O. R. Mapper Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 16:01
• 2 @O.R.Mapper When I first seen Starwars, that was also my view. It is evident Yoda is an alien too, so we know his language was deliberate :) –  Deutsch Pirate Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 16:09

In all my languages studies, I found that: Yoda talks like nihongo/Japanese, as he puts the "to be" verb at the end of the phrase- for example; "baka Steve des" (romanji representation/japanese) means "stupid, Steve is"

But it is also similar to Arabic: In English, we would say "the table is tall", but in Arabic, you would simply say, "tall" in Arabic, whilst pointing to the subject.

Yoda's language is a mix of all the languages on Earth. I think it was due to looking at different languages' SYNTAX then confusion over pronunciation. For example: Coptic ancient language (Egyptian) in English "stephane", in Coptic "stphn".

Best of all, the primary languages roots first and important words of "acta, water, mama" - Do you see Latin? Greek? These are really old forms of languages which remain common/have survived?

:) have a good day and confusion crisis

• 3 Can you provide sources for your answer? Papers that suggest this arrangement for these languages, etc. –  Edlothiad Commented Apr 29, 2017 at 13:34

Hungarian: https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/08/09/hungarian-i-am-not/ and https://ppmhungary.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/out-of-this-world-hungarian-is/ - "word on the street in Hungary is that Yoda actually uses Hungarian syntax translated into English."

• Actually reading that first article, he shows that this is not a case of English-Hungarian-English translation. The second article only propagates the rumor and doesn't attempt to prove it either way –  FreeMan Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 14:51
• 2 I don't really know either way, but many Hungarians are pretty sure this is true. Sure, there are some places where Lucas may have decided to break with the language's rules, but I don't think that invalidates the entire theory. –  Glen Pierce Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 14:54
• 5 Unless there is evidence that Lucas knew anything about Hungarian grammar, I would dismiss this as a pure coincidence. –  Wildcard Commented Apr 29, 2017 at 2:14
• 2 What's the image supposed to show? That Yoda does not use Hungarian word order? After all, the first sentence would rather read "Much to learn you still have." Likewise, the third sentence would sound more Yoda-like if it said "A stone the envoy is following." Yoda's word order and Hungarian word order both being unlike English word order is not sufficient for Yoda's word order and Hungarian word order to be equal. –  O. R. Mapper Commented Apr 30, 2017 at 11:46

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Star Wars Fan Theory Explains Why Yoda Speaks Differently

There's a good chance that you couldn't quote your high school English teacher to save your life, but there's a Yoda (Frank Oz) quote that lives rent-free in your head. A big reason for this is the whacked-out way in which the diminutive Jedi master delivers his dialogue. Yoda's backward manner of speech remains a distinct characteristic of the beloved "Star Wars" hero that has nevertheless been shrouded in mystery. But some fans believe they've cracked the code as to the origins of Yoda's unique speech pattern. 

On Reddit, one user shared their theory, saying, "Yoda speaks the way he does because he so old that the rules of grammar are different from when he was younger. Correct way to speak in his day, this was." Some argued against it, such as  u/PocketBuckle , who believed that Yoda only spoke this way to Luke in "The Empire Strikes Back" to fool the young Jedi into believing he wasn't as powerful as he actually was, but it ended up sticking to future depictions of the character. "I honestly think [George] Lucas forgot how he originally intended the character, so he wrote each later iteration as a more and more Flanderized version of itself," they commented. 

Some may also argue that Yaddle, a female of Yoda's species introduced in "The Phantom Menace," doesn't talk like him , as can be seen in "Tales of the Jedi," where she speaks with a normal speech pattern. However, given that Yaddle is much younger than Yoda, it makes sense that her style of speaking has evolved from Yoda's time, much in the same way that the English language itself has taken shape over the years. 

George Lucas and Frank Oz have their own explanations

Abundant theories exist regarding Yoda's mysterious manner of speaking. Given the character's iconography, the creators of the small but mighty Jedi master are no strangers to getting asked this question and have their own reasons for the unique creative decision.

According to an interview with George Lucas in the Paul Duncan book "Star Wars Archives. 1977-1983," the filmmaker created the quirky speech pattern as a way of keeping Yoda's bizarre alien origins intact while having the audience in mind. "I didn't want to go through a whole movie where everybody's reading subtitles, he had a lot of dialogue," Lucas explained. "So I had to come up with a language that was alien but still understandable, so I reversed everything around. The language was designed to make you focus on the boring philosophical lessons." It's safe to say that this tactic worked, as Yoda's many moments of enlightenment remain ingrained into the minds of viewers who grew up watching the original "Star Wars" trilogy. 

This key characteristic was brought into discussion when Dave Filoni and company were preparing to give Yaddle her speaking debut in "Tales of the Jedi," where she is voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard. However, in an interview with Nerdist , Filoni recalled a conversation he had with Yoda's original voice actor and puppeteer, Frank Oz , whose reasoning behind Yoda's speech isn't far off from the aforementioned fan theory. "Frank Oz told me once that Yoda speaks that way specifically in honor of his own master," Filoni shared. "That was what he had thought about it. I try to keep moving forward [with] these thoughts." Yoda may be a Jedi, but few can argue that Oz is the master when it comes to official word on the character's backstory.

Why so strangely Yoda speaks

Hear something odd in his syntax, you do

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Let's examine one of the great classic problems in linguistics: Yoda. And how he talks.

Yoda? Know him you do, surely. The great Jedi master he is! The little green Jedi master he also is. And speak in backwards sentences he does.

OK, that last statement isn't really true. The sentences aren't completely backwards. He doesn't say "Him to you take will I"; he says "Take you to him I will." What's more, not all his sentences are like this. Actually only about half are, depending on the movie; the rest are in normal English word order.

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What language does Yoda speak? The answer to this is surprisingly clear: It's English (duh). In all five of the movies he's in, he speaks only English. This is not to say that he doesn't speak any other language, but we actually don't have any evidence he does. He could be a monolingual speaker of the kind of English he speaks. There are dialects of English that are more different from the Queen's English than Yoda's is.

What's more, if Yoda's native language is not English, we can't infer any details of it from how he speaks English. The fact that he shows a stylistic quirk in English doesn't mean that he brought it over from another language. He may have, but he may just like the structure of that way of speaking. After all, he only sometimes uses the "reversed" word order — which means when he does, he probably does it by choice. He could easily have picked it up from English. After all, the people who wrote him did.

Let's look at a few characteristic sentences of Yoda English:

Nothing more will I teach you today.

Size matters not.

Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they.

If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.

For 800 years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained!

Much to learn you still have.

When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not.

Lost a planet Master Obi-Wan has.

Now let's look at some bits of English that do not come from Yoda, but sound like they could have:

Round about the cauldron go; in the poison entrails throw.

Else the Puck a liar call.

For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered.

I like him not.

Come, they told me, the newborn king to see.

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring.

Of your father I won't even speak.

The first four are from Shakespeare. The fifth is from a well-known Christmas song (with "pa-rum-pa-pum-pum" removed; thanks to Arnold Zwicky for that example). The sixth is from Walt Whitman. The last is from The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler, and it shows a characteristic turn of phrase in Yiddish-influenced English.

These sentences remind us of Yoda-style things we can do in poetry and other stylized forms. We can put not at the end ("I like him not") rather than attach it to the auxiliary do ("I don't like him"); this used to be standard English. We can move the verb to before the subject ("Duncan have I murdered"). We can put the conjugated verb at the end — which was standard in dependent clauses in Old English (and still is in German). And most importantly, we can bring stuff from the end to the front, as Yoda does.

When you bring a later part of the sentence to the beginning, it's called fronting . You can front just a noun or prepositional phrase — "Jackets we hang here, ties we pile over there"; "The life of Riley, you live"; "For $5 you came here?" — or you can front a verb with it as well, as long as you keep a conjugated verb (such as an auxiliary do or have or will ) at the end — "Likes it hot, he does"; "Park in my spot, will he?" Sometimes we even leave off the verb at the end, when we start with a shortened sentence and then clarify: "Makes a lot of money, your friend?"

Why do we front things? To put key information first. Perfunctory bits can wait till the end. Perhaps when 900 years old you are, do this you will also, as dead you may be before finish the sentence you will. Going with this, Yoda typically keeps the conjugated verb at the end — maybe because 900 years ago that's what we normally did in subordinate clauses in English — and puts the not at the end — because, again, it's old-style and more direct.

And why not? What would you do if you wanted something that sounds a little quirky and exotic and appropriate to a wise Jedi master who happens to be a two-foot-high green gremlin-like creature with the voice of Miss Piggy? Why not draw on archaic and poetic forms, and also on colloquial forms and some turns of phrase associated with Yiddish-influenced English, which is stereotyped as knowing and witty?

Because remember: Yoda didn't write his own lines. He is a character in five movies written by several different screenwriters. In Yoda-Speak: A Study of Yoda's Speaking Patterns and Their Frequencies , Michael Kaminsky gives a detailed run-down of how Yoda's speech varies from movie to movie — and screenwriter to screenwriter. So you have different versions of Yoda's speech; sometimes, for instance, the pronoun comes before the verb ("Received a coded message we have"), sometimes after ("Heard from no one have we"). But somehow they all manage to adhere more or less to a recognizable, comprehensible style.

And that's the thing about Yoda-speak: We understand it. It is comprehensible English because it is written by English speakers, for English speakers, using things you can do in English. If we were to put the words in the order you'll get them in even some of English's closest neighbor languages, it would be much stranger and harder to understand:

Is planet lost at Master Obi-Wan. (Gaelic)

I not you will-teach more today. (French)

I will my own counsel on them, who trained become, keep. (German)

In some other languages, you couldn't even do word-for-word — you might get just one or two words with a lot of prefixes and suffixes. And in extraterrestrial languages? All bets are off.

But Yoda speaks English.

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James Harbeck is a professional word taster and sentence sommelier (an editor trained in linguistics). He is the author of the blog Sesquiotica and the book Songs of Love and Grammar .

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Star Wars: Why Does Yoda Talk the Way He Does?

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When Luke Skywalker accepts his mission to avenge his father and be trained as a Jedi Knight, his Master’s speech is rather unique. Throughout the Star Wars franchise, the only person to speak like Master Yoda is Master Yoda . Across the galaxy, only two more creatures like Yoda exist (at least so far). When Anakin Skywalker was just a Padawan, he met Jedi Master Yaddle, who was on the Jedi Council with Yoda. The Mandalorian, sometime after Luke had become a recluse, was hired to rescue an infant who turned out to be named Grogu.

Though Yoda, Yaddle, and Grogu are the same species, they are not necessarily related. At this point, Yoda and Yaddle are the only ones of their species that we've seen talk, as Grogu is an infant. In Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi , Bryce Dallas Howard voices Yaddle, confirming that Yoda’s unique form of communication is entirely his own. At this point in the Star Wars saga, the species these three belong to is shrouded in mystery, specifically in regard to syntax. Yoda’s speech leads audiences to believe he is wise based on his aged appearance and peculiar speech pattern. But the question still remains: why does Yoda talk the way he does?

Yoda’s Speech Pattern

Consider other species in the Star Wars universe who do not speak standard English. For example, Chewbacca, a Wookie, speaks in a series of growls and howls, whereas the Jawas and Tusken Raiders speak their own respective languages despite being human or human-like beings. Language and its subsequent elements like development, semantics, and syntax give insight into a culture and its history. According to The Atlantic , language is structured by subject, verb, and object. Yoda’s speech structure is object-subject-verb, or OSV, which adds into the mystery of his species and makes him more alien.

While fans clamor over what is canon and whether Darth Vader is scarier than Darth Maul, one thing is for certain: many fans were intrigued by Yoda’s syntax during his premiere. This initial reaction to the way Yoda spoke was well accepted. Yoda was the first character of his kind, so his speech pattern, like Wookies or Jawas, seemed unique to his species. Since his debut, he is regarded as one of the wisest characters in the entire saga. His wisdom is derived from his speech structure and has inspired countless lists of affirming quotes.

Related: Star Wars: Studio Ghibli's Animated Baby Yoda Short Debuts on Disney Plus

Jedi Master Yaddle and Grogu’s Speech Patterns

The excitement that preceded Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was met with much disdain. Except for the introduction of one character: Jedi Master Yaddle. With the Jedi Council being an integral part of Episodes 1-3 , fans were anxious to see if the OSV speech Yoda used was innate to his species. But Jedi Master Yaddle was just present, no lines or indication that she shared Yoda’s speech pattern. The first woman-appearing of her species, and it took practically 20 years for a limerick of confirmation: Yaddle speaks more commonly, with subject-object-verb structure, making Yoda even more mysterious.

As fans learn more about Yaddle via the Disney+ series, Tales of the Jedi , the question of their species still lingers. The answers, hopefully, will be revealed with Grogu . When The Mandalorian debuted a baby, it’s safe to assume no one was expecting the baby to be half a century old! Grogu being an infant at 50, the equivalent of midlife for humans, left fans with more questions about the species than answers. With regard to Grogu’s speech, he babbles much like a human baby does. With Grogu then, it would be safe to assume that his speech is going to be similar to Yaddle’s SOV pattern. Therefore, Yoda’s OSV speech is entirely his own unique form of English.

Related: Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: Who is Master Yaddle?

George Lucas’ Own Words

According to her , Yoda’s character design is based on the genius Albert Einstein. Not only does this add to his mystique as a wizened sage, but it could also explain why he speaks in a specific way. Famously, Einstein didn’t speak full sentences until he was five years old, yet was one of the greatest minds the world has known. In fact, an economist coined the phrase Einstein Syndrome to help explain this phenomenon. Just as the inspiration for Yoda’s design is known, George Lucas himself has spoken on why Yoda speaks the way he does. In this video from Star Wars Theory , the narrator quotes Lucas’ reasoning for Yoda’s speech. Essentially, Lucas’ creation of characters and their languages was to take other languages' syntax and make them sound alien. With Yoda in particular, he flipped the syntax around and made it as understandable as possible to understand. Lucas’ intention was for audiences to focus on the philosophical lessons rather than trying to decipher another alien species’ language.